Wednesday, February 27, 2013

1) Roam about2) Say Hi to cosplayers I know and chat with them and their friends3) Took off to have a mini shoot at SOTA and Fort Canning Park with photogs I just met that day owo I wonder how that took off haha!

THE STAR ATTRACTION:

Feast your eyes.

Yay XXXXXXXXL-sized CHOPPER!

Shiro and Kuro :D Clothes were handmade! O:

Inori was very popular that day.

HAHAHAHA. The red line!

Yay Aya as Anna! Sword Cameo by Lawliet as Fushimi!

Raistlin as Munakata!

And lol when the emcee announced them to the 2nd place winners of World Cosplay Summit 2013 instead of 2012 XD

Yay Lawliet!

Managed to get a decent chat with her at this event to make up for our very short meeting at AFA backstage last year. \o/ Such nice people!

Very hardworking souls.

Panic Ducks!

The sound system really leaves much to be desired for. But I enjoyed Panic Ducks very much, especially Shuffle from Yu-Gi-Oh! ^_^ Work hard, there's a lot of room to improve!

Like I mentioned earlier, the Annual Animax Anison Grand Prix allows aspiring singers a chance to make a professional debut and sing a theme song in an anime television show. Her debut single "Asu e no Kizuna" was the opening theme to the anime adaptation of the PlayStation 3 video game Valkyria Chronicles. Though the PV is lacking is quite a few areas, this song is my favourite out of her singles so far because of the melody and her voice (:

For all you avid cosplayers, Himeka even released an official support song for World Cosplay Summit 2010, "La la la, Sekai o Hitotsuni". Have you listened to it? Not only has she released singles, she has a full cover album titled "Himekanvas", which included all her previous single releases, two cover songs and seven originals!

Her current blog is only in Japanese, but she would try to put a translation when she can, as seen in her previous blog before her shift to a new label. She likes to end her posts by sending her readers her magic sparkles of courage :D

Her second single was titled "Hatenaki Michi", the featured ending song for anime named Tegamibachi. Her third single, "Mirai e..." and was featured as the ending theme in the anime Senkō no Night Raid. I find that these two singles do not match up to the success of her first, but her latest just might! Check out her clear vocals in her latest single, Where I Belong, below!

I also find her particularly inspirational for her determination to break into and debut in the Japanese music industry despite being a non-native and not having been signed label prior to her entry. Big dreams can come true!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

I was feeling particularly generous after a successful month of saving up for my new goals this year, so I decided to have just one meal that is more expensive than my usual food fare. Was supposed to meet up with dollonstrings to pass her her items from taobao, so I decided to try lunch outside!

Olio Cafe has 3 branches, including one at Lot One and City Square Mall.

Photos taken with my iPhone because I was lazy to bring a camera XD

Concentric circles as part of their decor.

I had one of their lunch set specials, which cost me about $22.50 after GST and service charge. It included a main course, a soup and a drink. ^^

The full set!

The mushroom soup is really nice! :D I recommend it.

I ordered a medium well steak, and it was served correctly (read a review saying that they under cooked). I left it sizzling on the hot plate for too long and the veggies and potatoes got charred ): Overall, the steak was well-cooked and yummy, though there's nothing special about it. I highly recommend the mushroom soup, after all XD

Sunday, February 17, 2013

So there was a little festival promoting manga and to accept only authentic goods in Singapore last weekend. I missed both the lecture and the autograph session because I had other stuff going on T.T However, I hopped over to the exhibition at Arts House after practice and came back in time for choir dinner LOL.

It was a really small but cosy exhibition in the gallery, and I initially thought that I was at the wrong place because so many NUS students were around acting as ushers X) Turns out there was a hall production going on the same night.

The first thing to spot after entering XD

You could get a bag with a small freebie if you completed their survey. The bags came in 3 colours :D Bookshelves of several titles, but I was only attracted to the Miku illustrations, and this:

Too cute already *A* So much Danbo! The pictures will melt your heart. You can't see it in the pictures, but the edges were quite crumpled, most likely because so many people flipped it LOL.

Walk over to the inner area, and fangirl over all the vocaloid art <3

Kaito is too cute!

Miku looking pensive while the twins have loads of fun

Carefully protected in glass cabinets!

There was also a promotion of an application that would allow you to browse legal Japanese manga on your phone, and simulates the flipping motion as well.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

It is 2013! Isn't it great that the world did not end in 2012? (And why should it, with all the awesome anime and music coming out in 2013 XD) Now I am hoping that the soundtracks in 2013 will be just as awesome as in 2012! Meanwhile, check out the songs I have selected for you below (: If you are interested, catch the anime/game the song comes from!

1. Shounin to Ookami to, Tabi no Nibasha (Yoshino Yuuji, Spice and Wolf)Originally a Japanese light novel series, it has expanded to have its own manage and anime adaptions, and games too! I found this piece a really cute and unique tune to listen to, a bit of a medieval feel :P An interesting first track to open the entire soundtrack album.

2. Hane (Orito Shinji, AIR)Utilizing a music-box, this is a soothing piece for tear-jerker anime, AIR. Again, this anime is based on a visual novel series of the same name, which follows the life of Yukito Kunisaki, a travelling showman searching for the "girl in the sky". He arrives in a quiet, seaside town where he meets three girls, one of whom is the key to the end of his journey.

3. Innocent green (Yoko Kanno, Macross Frontier)A series which boasts several powerful insert songs as part of its soundtrack due to its plot, there are some instrumentals to look out for! Give this peaceful piece a listen ^_^ It is a good piece to contrast the high energy, high tempo songs from Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee.

4. Nagisa~Saka no Shita no Wakare (Orito Shinji, CLANNAD)Dango, dango, dango, dango, dango daikazoku :D I like how they used the instruments to bring out the qualities and lyrical feels from the original vocal versions. On another note, this is again, based off a visual novel series.

5. Chrono Cross ~ Fragments of Dreams (Mitsuda Yasunori, Chrono Cross)According to the composer, he was inspired by lots of visual imagery during song composition for this game. What kind of visual imagery comes to mind when you listen to this piece? With 45 playable characters you can collect, you will sure spend a very long time on this game.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Valentine's day is coming! Today's post will be mainly a picture post, of a DIY house my sisters and I made as a wedding gift for my cousin's wedding earlier this month! The theme of the house was a romantic chocolate shop.

Before shots

Just a messy mumbo jumbo

After shots/close-ups!

Here's a sneak peek!

Ta-da! Everything except for the hinged door

Mr Mouse pays a visit!

Close-ups!

An aerial view!

There was -supposed- be a chandelier, but the beads they gave us were too small and we didn't have time to find a suitable replacement, so =\

Ending off this post with aglio olio, made by friends and yours truly. It is awesome.

Saturday, February 09, 2013

If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to pay attention increases sharply. But if you wear the same white coat believing it belongs to a painter, you will show no such improvement.

In my previous psych post, I wrote about how thoughts can influence actions, namely the correlation between body perception and eventual weight. For this article, it talks about enclothed cognition, how what you wear and what you think you are wearing, can influence psychological processes.

Maybe that's why it is easier for people to feel more confident in smart attire, feel more sexy in revealing attire, or feel more like a vampire in vampire wear at Halloween etc. The clothes have symbolic meaning attached, and these symbolic meanings can influence our psychological processes.

To test this idea, researchers Adam and Galinsky got together 58 undergraduates in an initial study, with half of them wearing disposable lab coats. Selective attention was measured by a Stroop task, the classic test in which participants are instructed to name the color of a word flashed on a computer screen, while ignoring the word itself.

An example of a Stroop Test

In the experiments they conducted (they did a total of 3), it was found that priming alone (just seeing the coat) was not enough, you had to be physically wearing it and knowing the symbolic meaning attached.

Now I wonder, if I start associating my clothes with 'studious' and 'hardworking' and 'determined', or starting wearing studious/nerdy clothing, will I start getting better grades... Or does/can the effect wear off?

As with all studies, take the results with a pinch of salt. The benchmark for statistical significance is somewhat arbitrarily defined, after all. In addition, effect size (how much is the increase in attention) is not known. It is quite unlikely a person will become 200% more attentive once he dons a lab coat associated with a doctor.

You can view the original article on ScienceDirect, but you will need to pay $31.50 D: But all is not lost, you can read a well summarised version on The New York Times here.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

If you have been around Plaza Singapura lately, have you seen the wonderful denim additions in JRunway?

Still keeping all that denim a surprise, eh.

When I reached, their staff were already hard at work: promoting the show to passer-bys and getting people to take shots to be showcased in their denim contest.

For this event, JRunway has especially collaborated with Kurashiki Fashion Centre from Japan. The company hails from "Kurashiki" a local city in Okayama, well-known for manufacturing denim products. Many reputable brands were featured during the show namely:

Big John

Commonplace

DANIA Japan

Denim Closet

Delay by Win&Sons

FOB Factory

MOMOTARO Jeans

OMNIGOD

SEAMS and,

TENRYO DENIM

Each brand had a short video introducing the brand, their uniqueness in type of cotton used, dyeing, manufacturing process and even in their design! What better way to showcase the comfort and fit of denim than a fashion show? Kurashiki Fashion Centre, JRunway enlisted the help of students from Laselle to strut their stuff!

Woah.

On a very random note, when I received the camera to take photos with, I noticed that it was running out of battery D: Did it last through the fashion show? Check out our selections from the show below to find out!

Denim with muscle shirts!

The fashion show had 3 themes: Denim with muscle shirts, Full denim style and denim mix and match! Which style is your favourite?

Full denim style

And the girls!

Interested retailers and brand owners were treated to a complimentary tea session over at Canelle. For me, I headed over to their pop up showroom outside their store. All invited guests and media were treated to iced lemon tea and colourful macarons!

Food is always delightful!

I also received a file with fact sheets introducing the participating brands and companies, as well as a CD detailing the brands and retail prices.

Ongoing for that day only was their streetsnap denim contest! You could stand to win a pair of jeans worth $300! Check out the album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.455515074518433.101689.160426484027295&type=1